Maloney: Today the Dysfunction of Last Congress Hurts My Neighbors in the Hudson Valley

Newburgh, NY - As hardworking employees at United States Military Academy at West Point and Stewart Air National Guard begin mandatory furloughs, Representative Sean Patrick Maloney called on Republican leadership to replace sequester with a balanced, bipartisan, long-term budget. At the USMA at West Point instillation, 1,976 civilian personnel will be furloughed, including 675 at the Military Academy, 675 at the US Army Garrison, 263 at the Keller Hospital, and 58 at the Network Enterprise Center. At the USMA, the average salary in lost wages is approximately $4,181.76 per person - an 18% reduction in pay between July 1 and September 30.  In addition, US Army Garrison is closing West Point schools on September 13, 16, 20, 23, and 30 and has now closed Washington Gate and Fort Putnam until further notice.

“Today the dysfunction of the last Congress hurts our neighbors in the Hudson Valley. Sequestration hurts families, our communities, and our local small businesses,” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney. “As I’ve said many times, there’s a better way to go without furloughing military technicians, hardworking employees at USMA or hurting communities that rely on the National Guard for fires or floods - it’s a scandal that Republican leadership has refused to replace sequestration with a balanced, bipartisan long-term budget.”

“I want to thank Representative Maloney for working so hard to fix the self-created problem of the last Congress. Putting this burden on hardworking loyal employees is a travesty, and employees are filled with angst and nervousness about how they are going to survive in the future and provide for their families. Sequestration takes a meat cleaver approach instead of an analytical approach to gain efficiencies,” said Don Hale, President of AFGE Local 2367. AFGE Local 2367 represents 1,300 employees from the United States Military Academy – most of which will be furloughed.  

Army Gen. Frank J. Grass, the chief of the National Guard Bureau and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called sequestration potentially “devastating” to the Defense Department and the National Guard. Gen. Grass said that “one potential readiness impact is a decrease in response time and capabilities to respond to fires, floods and defense support of civil authorities events in the homeland.”

Rep. Maloney is currently a co-sponsor of bipartisan legislation that would exempt National Guard Military Technicians from sequestration.  In May, Rep. Maloney sent a bipartisan letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel denouncing the Department of Defense plan to furlough civilian employees and urges the Secretary to reconsider. Rep. Maloney previously sent a letter to President Obama and Secretary Hagel after voting to give the Pentagon more flexibility on sequestration cuts. Maloney first called on Congress to replace the across the board cuts in February.